


Six Umbrellas, Seven Birds

by 90screep



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:54:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25716142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/90screep/pseuds/90screep
Summary: SEASON 2 SPOILERS!When the Umbrella Academy arrives back in 2019, something is different. Actually, a lot of things are different. Most notably, they’ve been replaced by the Sparrow Academy, another superhero family adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves. Of course, Five learns the apocalypse has followed them yet again, and they must all band together to save the earth from it’s (once again) impending doom.IMPORTANT NOTE: I wanted to create a soundtrack for this story, so there will be a song listed at the beginning of each chapter to accompany your reading.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 73





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Please let me know what you think of this fic. I’m kind of new to writing things like this, so any and all advice/criticism is greatly appreciated! Don’t forget, this fic does have a soundtrack, so be on the lookout for the song titles at the beginning of each chapter. Those will tell you what song I imagine going on during the major action of the chapter. Thank you! -S

SONG FOR THIS CHAPTER: “Getting to Know You”  
from “The King & I” 

The Sparrow Academy. That’s who had replaced them? It was laughable at first. What kind of name was “Sparrow Academy” anyway? 

Alas, however questionable the new academy’s name was to them, the Umbrella Academy had simply never existed in this timeline - and that was something they had to accept. 

“Sparrow Academy,” shouted old man Hargreeves to the shadows watching from the balcony, “come introduce yourselves.”

They descended the staircase in an orderly fashion, meeting Ben in the middle of the floor. 

“Hi there,” said one of them as she offered a handshake to Diego. “I’m number two.”

Diego grabbed her hand and shook. And he shook. And he shook. He couldn’t stop himself from shaking this poor woman’s hand, and he didn’t know why. Her arm must have been hurting like his was, but he didn’t want to be rude and stop the handshake first.

“Two,” said Ben, “play nice.”

Diego watched as the forced smile fell from Two’s face. 

“You’re no fun.”

She let go of his hand. His arm felt kind of numb from all the shaking, but Diego didn’t think too much of it.

Next to shake hands was a young woman with ginger hair. She offered her hand to Klaus.

“I’m...I’m four,” she nervously stated.

“Ah! Another four! It’s nice to meet you.”

She timidly took his hand and shook it once. Then it darted back to the side of her body.

“Hey, there’s no need to be scared of me. We’re not going to-“

“I’m not,” said a different girl, now standing where Four was. She had the same voice, but her hair was now short and very black, and she had become quite tall.

“Who are you?” asked a very confused Klaus.

“Number Four?” replied the girl.

Klaus watched as she tilted her head to the side and changed back into the way he originally saw him. Only this time, there was no timidness or quivering voice; she was smirking - fully confident. The Sparrow Academy laughed.

“Shapeshifter. I guess she’s a shapeshifter. Sorry, Diego was confused; he told me to ask you.”

“What the hell, Klaus?” Diego could’ve punched him if his arm wasn’t so numb.

The Sparrows laughed again.

“Number five, you’re up,” said Ben as he motioned a young man to come forward. Five instinctively jerked forward, leading the other man to offer his hand to the boy.

This man was very different from Umbrella Academy Five. This man had dark skin and a smoothly shaved head. He was effortlessly elegant and, some might argue, otherworldly. When he spoke, it sounded as smooth as silk.

“How do you do, fellow five?” he asked. 

“If it doesn’t irk you too much,” said the littler five, “I’m not going to be shaking hands today.”

The two stared at eachother for what seemed like forever. 

“Very well then,” said Sparrow Five as he backed away from Umbrella Academy Five.

“You know, you shouldn’t be making enemies already,” Allison leaned down and whispered in his ear.

“Oh, I’m sorry for getting betrayed and seeing my entire family die because I trusted someone I knew I shouldn’t have. How stupid of me to not immediately trust this man too.”

“Wait. Five - you said you saw what?” Allison quietly asked as a look of worry marked her face.

Before Five could answer, he felt a sharp pain on the back of his neck and instinctively slapped at the area. He brought his hand back to his face to discover the remains of what appeared to be a spider. His eyes darted to Sparrow Five, who raised his hands in innocence.

“That was the spider. Not me,” he coldly said.

Ben gave him a knowing glance, and he slowly backed off.

“Well, I’m Luther,” said Umbrella Academy’s number one. 

“Ben.”

They shook hands. The Umbrella Academy let out a collective sigh. This may not have been the brother they knew and loved, but at least the name was still the same. As long as this new Ben was here, it was like having their brother with them again. Klaus wanted so badly to embrace this man and tell him he was so, so sorry for everything he put him through over the years. But he knew it wasn’t the same Ben he had spent his entire life knowing.

“Oh. So you guys do have names,” snapped Five.

“You never asked, we never told,” said Sparrow number two.

“Well, go on then,” commanded Reginald. Everyone flinched. They had almost forgotten he was in the room with them. 

“Tell them the little names you call yourselves. If you’ll excuse me, I have business to attend to in my office.”

He walked over to Ben and whispered something in his ear. Ben smirked and began introducing everybody.

“Well, I’m number one, and you already know my name - so let’s go down the line, shall we?”

He pointed to number two.

“That’s Tatiana. Number three over here is Alma. Don’t mind her, she doesn’t talk much.”

Alma shrugged and waved to the Umbrella Academy. Vanya gave her a a small wave back as Ben started naming the others.

“Number four over there is Enya, but only sometimes.”

Enya and the rest of the Sparrows chuckled. 

“Do we even know when she is and isn’t Enya?” laughed Tatiana.

Ben continued after the roaring laughter from the Sparrow Academy had calmed down. 

“Number five; that’s Matthias.”

Matthias nodded.

“Six,” Ben pointed to a bookish looking boy with leather gloves, “is named Damon.”

Damon pushed a pair of glasses further up onto his nose. 

“Nice to meet you all.”

“Finally, we’ve got dear old number seven.”

Nobody had noticed her yet, but number seven stood quietly at the end of the line. She had her arms crossed in front of her chest, her expression stoic. She looked like she wanted to kill the newcomers, and she acted like she could if she tried.

“Persophone,” she said, her voice dripping with pent-up rage.

“Well, that’s us,” finished Ben.

There was a very long pause. 

“Oh! How rude of us, guys,” Klaus said, slapping his palm on his forehead. “We didn’t all get a chance to introduce ourselves. I’ll go first, though, to break the, uh, tension.”   
He put his hand in the air and pointed at himself. 

“I’m Klaus. You’re all so welcoming, by the way. I really appreciate it.”

The Sparrows glared as he went on.

“The big ape man over there? That’s Luther. Then you’ve got Diego, Allison, and Five.” 

He looked at Ben and swallowed. 

“Our number six is, well, dead.”

He looked at his feet for a second before continuing. 

“And Vanya is our own little doomsday machine.”

“Klaus,” remarked Allison sharply.

“He’s fine. I mean it’s not like he’s lying,” replied Vanya.

“Together, we make the Umbrella Academy,” Klaus announced. 

Persephone began to slow clap. The tension in the room was almost visible. One after the other, the other Sparrow Academy followed suit.

“So, do you losers have any powers, or are you just a rag-tag family band?” asked Tatiana.  
Klaus scoffed.

“Wow. You guys must be so fun at family reunions and funerals.”

“Yes, we all have powers,” everybody looked down at Five. “Now do you want to keep discussing and waste all of our time, or do you want to find a place to stay before nightfall.” 

“Why not stay here?” asked Matthias before anybody could answer. “We’ve got a lot of room here. If you had actually lived here once, you think you’d know that.”

“Stand down, Matthias,” Ben put his arm out in front of his brother. “He does have a valid point. The old man is going away on business for a few days. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind you crashing here.”

Diego chuckled.

“That man? He wouldn’t even let us see his guests when we were kids. What makes you think he’ll let us stay here?”

“Maybe he’s a different Hargreeves than you know. Maybe he’s changed. I sure would be a lot more angry at the world if I had you lot as a family.” 

Everybody looked to where the voice was coming from. Enya was now a sharp-featured woman with platinum hair and emerald eyes. She smirked.

“The old man doesn’t care. Plus, if you guys can hide tonight, he won’t even know. I’m sure you know all the good places to hide things since you were, you know, us.”

“So it’s settled,” remarked Five. 

The Umbrella Academy began to protest, but it was to no use. They knew they couldn’t go anywhere right now. To be quite honest, none of them knew how this timeline actually was. Did they have homes to go back to? Did they have families and friends of their own anymore? 

Nobody knew.

“Get the guest rooms ready,” Ben turned to Alma and nodded.

She motioned to Damon, and they quickly and orderly ascended the staircase. 

“Welcome home.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SONG FOR THIS CHAPTER: “Last Words of a Shooting Star” by Mitski

While the Umbrella Academy and the Sparrow Academy were busy getting to know each other, a young woman on the other side of the nation was about to lose somebody very important to her. She did not yet know this.

“Papa?” she whispered.

It hurt her, seeing the man like this. She knew he was old and this was coming eventually, but it didn’t lessen the ache she felt looking at him asleep in the hospital bed. She so badly wanted to turn back time to when she was a child and he was strong enough to fight anything the world threw at him. And, oh, to hear another one of his stories. That’s all she wanted now.

“Elsa,” he smiled and looked her direction, “what a nice surprise. It’s only been three hours since I’ve seen you last.”

Elsa chuckled as she crouched beside the bed. The man put his hand on her cheek.

“I’ve got a story for you.”

Her eyes lit up. A story? After all these years? She was so happy she could burst.

“But this one,” he paused, looking for the right words. “This story is not like the ones I told you when you were little.”

“That’s alright, papa,” Elsa replied, “I’ll love it anyway.”

He broke her gaze.

“You know I’m not your real papa, don’t you?” 

Elsa nodded.

“I found you when you were very little. I named you after my mother, and I never stopped loving you like my own daughter.”

His voice cracked as if he was about to cry. He took a moment, collected himself, and continued with his grown-up story.

“I have searched for your parents from the moment I found you. Mostly because I wanted to ask them what the hell they were thinking leaving a little girl like you,” he chuckled. “I have loved every minute of raising you, but I have not been honest with you.”

Elsa’s mind began racing. Before she could ask questions, he began to speak again. This section of the story was a lot more serious. 

“I used to work for bad people, and that made me turn into a bad, bad person. I did bad things - terrible things, unspeakable evil -to innocent people. When I left that job, I had no idea of what I wanted to do next. But I knew I did not want to fight anymore. ‘No more violence,’ I told myself ‘Enough.’ And, so, I put my gun down and walked away.”

Elsa was almost in tears. She couldn’t imagine the things he was describing. Her father? The hippie?

“Why are you telling me this story, papa? I forgive you for whatever you’ve done, I-“

“What I’ve done,” he interrupted, “is unforgivable. I will pay for it when I die. I think that will be soon. That is why I am telling you these things.”

He took a deep breath.

“Ever since you were little, you had certain,” he had to choose his words carefully now; he couldn’t have her think he was lying, “shall we say, abilities.”

“Abilities? Papa, I think the pain medicine is getting to your head,” Elsa laughed as she tried to walk away.

He grabbed her hand.

“My sweet little sparrow.”

That’s what he called her to comfort her as a child. Even hearing it now brought a sense of calm and understanding. He was completely serious.

“Have you ever noticed scars on your body that you yourself didn’t create? Any bruises or aches you couldn’t explain.”

Elsa nodded, slowly turning towards him.

“You are so special, sparrow. Those injuries are-“

The old man began to cough uncontrollably. Several nurses rushed into the room as Elsa was pushed out into the hallway. She waited there for hours. Nobody would answer her questions about her father, but, as nurses kept filtering in and out, her thoughts grew dark. Finally, the last nurse exited the room. She stopped to look at Elsa, her exhaustion all too apparent in her face.

“Don’t let him talk, but you can say goodbye now.”

Elsa entered the room. There was the man that raised her, weaker than she had ever seen him. 

“Papa,” she said for the last time. “I love you so much. More than anything. I promise I won’t let you be forgotten.” 

She began to cry. Suddenly, she felt a tap on her shoulder. It was him. He had a notepad in his hand. His last message to his daughter.

“Find Number Five,” it said, “He will help you. I love you, sweet sparrow.” 

They smiled at each other as he fell asleep, never to wake again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen, I KNOW this one is short, but I wrote it at work and honestly love the way it came out.


End file.
